Cars.com Mileage Challenge 4.5: Final Thoughts

In what’s become a mileage challenge tradition, we wrap up our spring series with some driving impressions of each car. After all, two editors and our editor in chief spent nearly seven hours in these luxury crossovers.

Cars.com Mileage Challenge 4.4: The Premium Problem

Yesterday we brought you results from Cars.com’s latest mileage challenge, a 300-plus-mile trip, mostly on highways. The BMW X3 came in first with 23.7 mpg. The Land Rover LR2 came in second with 22.8 mpg, while the Volvo XC60 brought up the rear with 21.0 mpg.

Case closed? Not quite. Premium cars often need premium gas, but these cars are a diverse bunch. BMW’s high-tech Valvetronic engines — like the one in the X3 — require premium fuel. For the LR2, Land Rover merely recommends premium; spokeswoman Kim Binder-Daniel said regular will do, though “performance will degrade.”

Cars.com Mileage Challenge 4.3: The Results

The spring’s mileage challenge took three entry-level luxury crossovers — the BMW X3, Land Rover LR2 and Volvo XC60 — on 300-plus miles of mostly highway driving around northeast Illinois and southern Wisconsin. The results? Read on:

2008 BMW Models Get 0.9% Financing

The 2009 BMWs are on the way, and it’s time to get rid of the 2008s. Yep, BMW has model-year-end sales too, they just use fancy terms, like 0.9% financing, to promote them. Through Sept. 2, all 2008 BMW models — besides the X6, M3 and M5 — will be eligible for 0.9% financing for qualified buyers. What does that mean?

The current average loan rate is 6.78%, so say you want to finance a base 328i sedan, which starts at $32,700, over four years. Putting nothing down on the car (and let’s keep tax out of the equation), your monthly payment would be $779.70. That’s a lot of money for a 3 Series; in the end you’d wind up paying $37,426 with all the interest included.

Lower the rate to 0.9% and your monthly payment drops to $693.84, with total cost over the term of $33,304. So BMW is basically offering a $4,000 discount here. The math is rudimentary, but 0.9% is a good deal on any car, let alone a BMW. Oh, and because the 328i is one of the most affordable BMWs on the lot, the savings only go up as you move up through the model range.

BMW Financing Offers (BMW USA)

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2009 BMW 3 Series: New Look, U.S. Diesel Confirmed (KickingTires)

Recall Alert: 200,000 BMW 3 Series, 5 Series, X3

Today, NHTSA announced that BMW is recalling 200,000 cars and SUVs due to a faulty airbag that may not deploy during a crash. The models affected include 2006 3 Series, 2004-06 5 Series and 2004-06 X3 SUVs.

The problem isn’t in the airbag itself but in the sensors that detect whether there’s a person in the front passenger seat. When working properly, the sensor will disengage the passenger airbag if there’s no one sitting in the seat. However, this defect can cause the sensor to think no one is in the seat when they really are, which could lead to injury.

BMW says no one has been injured due to the problem, and that the warning light that signals when the airbag is disengaged will flash on and off if the sensor isn’t working properly.

Concerned owners should check with their dealer to determine if their car is included in the recall and bring it in for service.

Suburban Dad: 2007 BMW X3

It wasn’t hard to get the kids to enjoy the BMW X3: They became fixated on, and fought over, the heated second-row seats. Or, as they called them, the “butt warmers.”

As for my wife and I, we loved the interior and the X3’s look, but thought it was just a little small for our family of five. Still, for the X3, maybe we could ship off one of the kids…

Having driven plenty of BMW sedans over the years, all the usual markers were in place. The beautiful interior, the nice attention to detail in the upholstery, the snazzy looks. There are plenty of creature comforts as well, although BMW doesn’t have the best icons to tell you each button’s function. Whoever decided the power door lock button should be located under the hazard lights button, and not on the driver and front passenger doors, ought to be smacked. That little mystery took me more than 90 minutes to figure out; at one point, I wound up using the key fob to unlock the doors — from inside the car!

There were some other little annoyances:

Faceoff Lite: 2007 BMW X3 vs. 2007 Acura RDX

Crossing paths in the Cars.com fleet of cars were two compact luxury SUVs that have an interesting relationship. One, the BMW X3, was meant to take advantage of a gap in the luxury SUV market, and many automotive journalists thought the effort from BMW was a tad rushed. The other SUV, the Acura RDX, was developed with one thought in mind: Beat the X3 in every way. BMW added a few new bells and whistles this year, including some minor plastic surgery inside and out. But can it fight off the newcomer?

Kelsey Mays and I took them both on, and here’s what we made of the new rivalry.